The invention relates to an improved apparatus for cutting twine from the rotary drum of a bale processor.
Crop material such as hay, straw and other forage materials are often baled for storage and transportation. When it comes time to use the baled material it is sometimes necessary to disintegrate the material from the bale structure for placing the material into a row of feed, dispensing the material into bunks or spreading the material for use as bedding or the like. The baled material is typically held together by twine which is removed during the disintegration process.
It is known in the art to disintegrate baled material with a bale processor having a rotary drum with flails mounted thereon which act on the baled material when rotated. One such bale processor is disclosed in Canadian Patent No. 2,086,569. The apparatus disclosed in that patent includes a flail drum mounted within a base section of a hopper. Two support rollers are positioned within the hopper and above the flail roller to support and rotate the bale. Mounted on the flail drum are a set of flails which, when the flail drum is rotated, engage with the bale material suspended between the two support rollers thereby disintegrating the baled material. The disintegrated material is ejected through a discharge opening by rotation of the flail drum.
One disadvantage of rotary drum bale processors is that twine used to hold the baled material together often becomes wound around the flail drum. As a result, the action of the flails on the baled material is impeded.
It is an object of the invention to attempt to provide an effective manually powered apparatus for cutting twine wrapped around the rotary drum of the disintegrator of a bale processor. According to a broad aspect of the invention, the invention provides a twine cutter including a cutting member mounted at one end of a rigid rod. The twine cutter and at least one of the end walls of the bale processor are configured to facilitate engagement of twine wrapped around the rotary drum by the cutting member across substantially the full length of the rotary drum.
According to another aspect, the invention provides a bale processor comprising a bale receptacle having two end walls, a disintegrator for shredding a bale within the bale receptacle, the disintegrator including a rotary drum mounted along its axis of rotation between the two end walls of the bale processor and a manually powered twine cutter including a cutting member mounted on an elongated rigid rod. The twine cutter and at least one of the end walls of the bale receptacle are configured to facilitate engagement of twine wrapped around the rotary drum by the cutting member across substantially the full length of the rotary drum.
According to a further aspect of the invention, the invention provides a bale processor comprising: a bale receptacle; a disintegrator for shredding a bale within the bale receptacle, the disintegrator including a rotary drum; a twine cutter including a handle and a cutting member; and a guide means for guiding the cutting member across the surface of the rotary drum such that the cutting member engages with and cuts twine wrapped around the rotary drum.